Baccarat is a game that is usually played in a casino where one or more players play against a bank. In Europe, the bank is one of the players. In a typical casino in the United States, the bank is a dealer employed by the casino. In a card room in the State of California, the bank is a Third Party Provider of Proposition Player Services.
Before cards are dealt, a player makes a wager on either a player hand or a bank hand. Since the player makes the wager on either of the hands, there is an absence of a focused adversarial relationship between the player and the dealer. After a wager is made, two cards are dealt to form the player hand and two cards are dealt to form the bank hand. The hands are dealt from one or more standard decks of cards that are shuffled together. The rules of Baccarat provide for dealing a third card to the player hand and dealing a third card to the bank hand under certain conditions. Whether the player hand or the bank hand is a winning hand is determined by their point values. The hand with highest point value is the winning hand.
The point value of an example hand is obtained from the sum of the point values of cards that comprise the example hand. Face cards have a point value of zero. All other cards have a point value equal to their numerical face value with an ace having a point value of one. When the sum is a single digit number, the sum is the point value of the example hand. When the sum is a two digit number, the low order digit of the sum is the point value of the example hand. Therefore, the highest point value of a hand is nine. A natural is a term that is used to describe a hand, comprised of two cards, that has a point value of either eight or nine.
In some jurisdictions additional rules and regulations may regulate the play of card games. For example, in California, a card room running a card game may not collect a percentage of wagers; each player must be offered a turn as a player/dealer; and a card game may not rely solely on chance. In those circumstances, it may be advantageous to provide variations that not only provide gaming regulation compliance, but may also provide a more entertaining experience for players. As such, methods of playing a baccarat card game variation are provided herein.